RGSSALibraryCatalogue

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

The final entry in the “Discovering Asia” series on the early
travel narratives in the collection of the Royal Geographical Society of South
Australia—

Discovering Japan

The existence of Japan had
been known for some time to Europeans but real contact with the West did not
begin until the Portuguese established trade relations in the mid-16th century
and began sending out their Christian missionaries. This contact lasted for
nearly a century, and then Japan instituted a policy of isolationism, closing its
borders to foreign influences. Not surprisingly, in the isolationist years few
works on Japan were published in the West. After contact was re-established in
the 19th century, European travellers began heading eagerly for Japan, and
things Japanese became intensely fashionable in Europe, influencing art in
particular.

THE
EARLY PERIOD: SOME CRUCIAL DATES

1543:
The First Portuguese Black Ships

Japan’s contact with the
West began in 1543, when Portuguese traders arrived. They set up a trade route
linking Nagasaki to Goa, on the western coast of India, where they were already
established.

“A Portuguese Nanban carrack, 17th
century.” (Wikipedia}

The large Portuguese carracks had their hulls painted black with
pitch, and the term “black ships” came to represent all western vessels.

The Japanese gained modern
firearms, with refined sugar, optics and other inventions. Later, silver from
Japan was exchanged with silk from China via
Macao.

1549:
St Francis Xavier Arrives in Kyushu

The first Christian mission
to Japan began in 1549 with the arrival of the Jesuit Francis Xavier.
Christianity spread along with the spread of trade, with eventually about
300,000 converts, mostly peasants but, significantly at a time of great
internal conflict in Japan, some daimyo
(warlords).

1609:
the Dutch Arrive; 1613: the English Follow

In 1609 a Dutch mission
finally arrived and an English trade expedition four years later, in 1613. Both
companies received shuinjo from the
shogun, permitting them to trade in Japan, the Dutch in 1611, the English in
1613. On both occasions the expatriate Englishman William Adams played a part
in securing the trade privileges, but he exaggerated his rôle.

1637:
East-West Relations Deteriorate

The Shimabara Rebellion,
suppressed in 1637, was blamed on the Christian influence. Tighter and tighter
restrictions were placed on the Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries.

1639:
The Shogun Tokugawa Closes Japan

In 1639 all foreigners were
expelled from the Japanese mainland by the shogun Tokugawa. The Portuguese
traders were confined to Dejima island at Nagasaki. Isolationism became the
policy. Japan remained cut off from Western influences until 1853.

]

THE
EARLY PERIOD: SOME INTERESTING BOOKS

The RGSSA holds
a mixture of early texts and later editions or translations which relate to the
period of early European contact with Japan. They include two accounts of
extraordinary lives: those of the Portuguese Fernão Mendes
Pinto and the Englishman William Adams.

Pinto claimed in his
autobiography (Peregrinação) to have
been the first to introduce modern firearms (“arquebuses” or “harquebuses”) to
the Japanese, when he landed at Funai (modern Oita) around 1452 or 1543.

PINTO, Fernão
Mendes, -1583

[Peregrinaçam. English]

The
voyages and adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, the Portuguese, done into
English by Henry Cogan; with an introduction by Arminius Vambery. An abridged
and illustrated edition. London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1891.

His book was published
posthumously in 1614, with an English translation appearing in 1663. Scholars
disagree about its historical accuracy, including the firearms story, but some
aspects have been verified. Pinto was from a poor family, and first went to sea
as a ship’s boy. During his extensive travels he underwent amazing vicissitudes,
with several episodes of imprisonment and enslavement. He went first to India,
from 1537 to 1538, then through Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf
(circa 1538). His second, much longer, series of Asian adventures took place
from 1539 to 1558. In the East Indies he was based in Malacca (then under the
Portuguese), establishing diplomatic alliances with local rulers against the
sultanates of northern Sumatra.

Pinto in Japan

After his initial landing
in 1542 or 1543 (accounts vary) Pinto was back and forth to Japan for about
fourteen years, facilitating Portuguese trade. At one point he was shipwrecked
on the Ryukyu Islands. Having earlier left Japan with a Japanese fugitive, he
returned in 1549 with Saint Francis Xavier’s Jesuit mission. Pinto himself
joined the Society of Jesus in 1554, donating a large sum from his trading to
it. He left Japan again after Francis Xavier’s death, but was back there with
the Jesuit leader’s successor from 1554 to 1556. He became viceroy to
Portuguese India’s ambassador to the daimyo
of Bungo, on Kyushu. However, he left the Jesuits in 1557, and finally departed
from Japan.

After this he went back to Portuguese
Malacca, was sent briefly to Burma (Myanmar), and then Banten, in Java, after
pepper, a trip from which he did return but only after shipwreck and
enslavement. Finally, via Siam (Thailand), he returned to Portugal.

A
Portuguese Jesuit Missionary & Linguist:

João
Rodrigues in Japan, 1576-1610

Rodrigues,
who went to Japan as a boy of 15, arrived just in time to experience Japanese
society before
the country was closed. His works provide an insight into this significant
early phase of the “East-meets-West” drama.

Having entered the Jesuit
Society in Japan in 1576, Rodrigues began missionary work there in 1583. His early studies and complete mastery of the Japanese
language impressed Toyotomi Hideyoshi (or “Emperor Taicosama”, 1536?-1598), who
made him a favourite and his personal interpreter. Rodrigues’s early works were
issued in Japan: a comprehensive work on the Japanese language, Arte da lingoa de Iapam (“Japanese
Language Art”, Nagasaki, 1604), and a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary (Nagasaki,
1603), translated centuries later into French by Pagès (Paris, 1862).

The troubles which would lead to the
installation of the shogunate and the closing of Japan were increasing during
this period, and some of them involved foreigners. In 1610 Rodrigues was forced
to leave Japan as the result of an incident in which Japanese sailors were
killed. He then based himself in Macao, where he would die in 1633. There he
worked on his history of the Jesuits in Japan, Histôria da Igreja do Japão (“History of the Japanese Church”),
published in 1634.

It is extraordinary that at this time, with
the Spanish Inquisition at its height, and Catholics and Protestants at one another’s
throats in Europe, Rodrigues provides an open-minded account of aspects of
Japanese culture, even to the extent of praising the holiness of the Buddhist
monks. Well-versed in both Western and Eastern cultures, he was a sympathetic
and knowledgeable bridge between the two. His personal practice of taking tea
served to advance him within Japanese society at a time when aesthetic
interests and intellectual sophistication were greatly valued. Three full
chapters of his História are devoted
to the tea ceremony, chanoyu. His
work gives us a fascinating and unique picture of Japanese life at the turn of
the 16th century as viewed by a foreigner who was able to experience it as an
insider. With Japan closed to the Western world, we may look in vain for
another such sympathetic attempt to bridge the gap between the Western and
Japanese cultures in the following two and half centuries.

In 1582 Alessandro
Valignano, the Visitor to the Jesuit Mission in the East Indies, organised a
trip to Europe for four teenage Japanese boys, two of whom represented
important Christian daimyo (the
Tensho Era Boys’ Embassy, 1582-1590)

Japanese
travellers in sixteenth-century Europe: a dialogue concerning the mission
of the Japanese ambassadors to the Roman Curia (1590). London, Hakluyt Society,
2012. (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society; 3rd ser., no. 25)

The boys left Japan on 20
February 1582 and disembarked in Lisbon on 11 August 1584. They then travelled
through Portugal, Spain and Italy as far as Rome, the highpoint of their
journey, before returning to Lisbon to begin the long voyage home in April
1586. They reached Nagasaki on 21 July 1590, amidst great rejoicing, more than
eight years after their departure. During their travels in Europe they had
audiences with Philip II, King of Spain and Portugal, and with Popes Gregory
XIII and Sixtus V, and were received by many of the most important persons in
the places they visited.

Guido Gualtieri, a contemporary Italian
scholar and writer, recounts the visit of the young Japanese to Rome and traces
the history of the relations maintained by the Vatican, through the Jesuit
Order, with the Far East. Although his picture has been seen as a slightly
idealised one it nevertheless manages to present more than just the Western
point of view. Until the boys’ arrival the Euro-Japanese encounter had been
almost exclusively one way: Europeans going to Japan. The Embassy was an
integral part of Valignano’s strategy for advancing the Jesuit mission in Japan
and raising further support in Europe.

As part of the plan, a book consisting of
thirty-four colloquia detailing the boys’ travels was compiled and translated
into Latin by “Eduardo de Sande” (i.e., Duarte de Sande, 1547-1600), under
Valignano’s supervision. It was published in Macao in 1590 with the title De missione legatorvm Iaponensium ad Romanum
curiam. The Hakluyt edition is the first complete version of this rich,
complex and impressive work to appear in English, and includes maps and illustrations
of the mission, and an introduction discussing the context and the subsequent
reception of the book.

The
First Englishman Arrives: William Adams in Japan, 1600-1620

William Adams (1564-1620)
was the first Englishman to reach Japan. He shipped aboard the Dutch ship Liefde in 1598 as pilot, in a fleet of
five ships heading for the Spice Islands via
the Strait of Magellan and the Pacific Ocean. The fleet was scattered as it
sailed into the Pacific and the men on the Liefde,
having only heavy broadcloth to trade, which they knew was not wanted in the
Spice Islands, headed for Japan, of which they knew nothing. They reached Japan
on 12 April 1600 with only twenty-four men alive.

Memorials
of the Empire of Japon in the XVI and XVII centuries. London, Hakluyt
Society, 1850. (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society; no.8)

(York Gate Library 2120)

Adams did not,
surprisingly, vanish without a trace. In 1611 the merchants of the East India
Company in England were astounded to receive a letter from Japan, written by
Adams several years earlier. He had become an advisor to the ruling shogun,
received great favours from him, taken a Japanese name, and was now offering
his services as advisor and interpreter. The English sent out a mission which
arrived in 1613 in ships under the command of Captain John Saris. Their aim was
to set up a trading station (“factory’) at Hirado in the southwest. The trading
post was headed by Richard Cocks (or Cockes). Adams’s claims for his influence
on the two shoguns under whose reigns he lived are said by modern scholars to
have been exaggerated, largely by himself. The English certainly did not
establish themselves permanently as traders in Japan. Adams died before Japan
was closed to foreigners, living out his life as a “gentleman of Japan” very
comfortably. Does his story sound oddly familiar? It was the inspiration for
the best-selling novel, Sho-gun.

After his death in 1820 Adams was largely
forgotten. Modern myths about him date from 1872, when an Englishman, James
Walters, claimed to have discovered the tombs of Adams and his Japanese wife.
There is no historical proof of such an attribution of these and other artefacts.

In the history of the
European discovery of Asia, Adams’s importance is of course that his letter was
the encouragement needed for the East India Company to send a party to Japan.
The RGSSA Library holds works on the man who captained the expedition, John
Saris (d. 1646), and the man who became leading trader at the English
“factory”, Richard Cocks (1566-1624).

“Eighth Voyage
set forth by the East Indian Societie, wherein were employed three ships, under
the command of Capt. John Saris. His course and acts to and in the Red Sea, Java,
Moluccas, and Japan (by the inhabitants called Neffoon, where also he first
began and settled an English Trade and Factorie)...”, 1611-14, In:

”Relation of
what passed in the General's absence going to the Emperour’s Court. ‘VVhereunto
are added divers Letters of his and others, for the better knowledge of Japonian
affaires’” [on Richard Cocks], In:

Haklvytvs
posthumus, or, Pvrchas his Pilgrimes. Vol. I, p. 395.

The
Last European Witness? François Caron Sees the Closing of Japan

François Caron (1600-1673),
born in Brussels to French Huguenot parents, served the Dutch East India
Company (VOC) for thirty years, rising from cabin boy to Director-General at
Batavia (now Jakarta), only one grade below Governor-General. He was later to
become Director-General of the French East Indies Company (1667-1673). He first
went to Japan in 1619, and left in 1641, after the 1639 banishment of the VOC’s
Dutch traders to Hirado Island.

The RGSSA has the 1663 English translation
of his work on Japan, and a French version in Thévenot’s travel compilation of
1696.

CARON,
François, 1600-1673.

A true
description of the mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam. Written originally in
Dutch by Francis Caron and Joost Schorten: and now rendred into English by
Capt. Roger Manley. London, printed by Samuel Brown and John de l’Ecluse, 1663.

Caron provides a
meticulously organized record of Japanese customs and commerce in the early
years of the 17th century, describing many facets of the way of life, covering
not only those useful for commerce, but also a mass of background information,
including, amongst many more topics:

Geography:“How great the Countrey of Iapan is &
whether it be an Island or no.”

Saturday, 6 June 2015

I’ll conclude
the story of the European “discovery” of the spice islands of the East Indies,
as told by the early travel narratives in the library of the Royal Geographical
Society of South Australia, with a look at the conflicts that arose from the
European greed for spices, and the sufferings of the local peoples at the hands
of the Dutch East India Company (the VOC).

We should bear in mind that
the colonial history of the Dutch in Asia, though it does them no credit, was
no worse than that of the British, the Portuguese, or the Spanish. These Europeans
sprang from a culture that truly believed that non-Christians were lesser
people, worthy at most of conversion, whether or not forced upon them. If they
could not be converted, no blame attached to killing them. Ironically by the
later 16th century there was no consensus as to what Christianity was: at home Catholics and Protestants
were slaughtering one another. It’s hard, from a 21st-century perspective, not
to heap blame upon those who victimised the peoples whom they discovered in the
East—but let’s just keep telling ourselves that very few human beings have ever
been capable of rising above their cultural conditioning.

As we’ve seen in earlier
blogs, pepper was available from many trading ports in the East Indies: in
India from the Malabar Coast ports, and further east from Malacca in the Malay
Peninsula and from Banten In Java. Once the Dutch had a firm foothold in the
Indonesian islands they found it easy to get vast quantities of pepper.
Important and very valuable in Europe though it was, pepper was no longer of
concern. The VOC did not manage to create a monopoly but they certainly had a
lion’s share of the pepper trade.

Cloves, nutmeg and mace
were another matter. These hugely valuable spices only grew naturally, as we’ve
seen, in the Moluccas (the Maluku Islands of Indonesia). The vicious battles
and inhumane repression which characterised the first part of the 17th century
in the East Indies were therefore centred round the clove islands, especially
Ambon (”Amboyna”) and the nutmeg islands, the Bandas.

“The
Hollanders will doe no right, nor take no wrong”

In 1605, as we saw in the
last blog entry, Stephen van der Hagen took the fort at Ambon from the
Portuguese without opposition: the first territory officially captured by the
Dutch in Southeast Asia. The remnants of the Portuguese and any Spaniards in
the area would also need to be chased out.

DRIVING THE ENEMY
OUT OF THE MOLUCCAS: VERHOEFF

Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff
(or Verhouven, Verhoeven) (1573?-1609) was a Dutch sea captain in the service
of the Dutch East India Company who commanded, and died during, a notable Dutch
voyage to Asia from 1607 to 1612. The VOC had given his fleet explicit and
“aggressive” instructions in its efforts to gain control of the spice trade. The
fleet was to raid Portuguese and Spanish shipping, but “its special mission was
to drive the enemy out of the Moluccas.” This latter aim was largely achieved.

“By the time Verhoeff’s fleet sailed for
home, the Dutch had built new forts on Banda and Amboina and had left only the
stronghold on Tidore in Spanish hands.”

The Catalogue of the York Gate Library notes that this volume contains
the “Voyages of the Hollanders and Zealanders to the East Indies, under Admiral
Verhouven, 1607-9.” That is, Verhoeff. The work is: “based on a report written
by Johann Verken, a German soldier... [who] joined Verhoeff's fleet in
November, 1607, as a ‘soldier and corporal.’ Verken took part in, and described
in his journal, Verhoeff’s attack on Mozambique (July and August, 1608), the
negotiations at Calicut and Cochin, the operations in the Straits of Malacca,
and the journey to Bantam [Banten] and to the Banda Islands, where Verhoeff was
killed in May, 1609. Verken remained in military service at the new Fort Nassau
on Banda Neira until July, 1611...” His account was “extensively edited,
perhaps rewritten, by Gotthard Arthus.” (Lach & Van Kley, Op. cit., p. 519.) One of the valuable
aspects of the work is its description of Verhoeff’s activities in the Banda
Islands and his death there.

1625

Purchas also picks up on
Verken’s account, in Vol. I, Part II of his compilation. On pages 717-718, with
the caption heading “Chap. 15. The Hollanders will doe no right, nor take no
wrong” we can read the descriptions of the arrival at Banten, the
journey to the Banda Islands past a volcanic island (“a Rocke burning in the
Sea, halfe an houres journey in circuit”: possibly Banda Api), a fight with the
Bandanese, their eventual concession that the Dutch could build a fort
(“castle” as Purchas calls it) on Banda Neira, and the death of Verhoeff, who
had gone ashore with a group of men: a great cry was heard from the depths of a
“grove” in the forest and when the Dutch rushed in they found their admiral
dead:

PURCHAS,
Samuel, 1577?-1626.

Haklvytvs
posthumus, or, Pvrchas his Pilgrimes: contayning a history of the world,
in sea voyages, & lande-trauells by Englishmen and others, wherein Gods
wonders in nature & prouidence, the actes, arts, varieties & vanities
of men, w[i]th a world of the worlds rarities are by a world of
eyewitnesse-authors related to the world, some left written by Mr. Hakluyt at
his death, more since added, his also perused, & perfected, all examined,
abreuiated, illustrated w[i]th notes, enlarged w[i]th discourses, adorned
w[i]th pictures, and expressed in mapps, in fower parts, each containing fiue
bookes; by Samvel Pvrchas, B.D. Imprinted at London for Henry Fetherston at ye
signe of the rose in Pauls Churchyard, 1625. 4 vols.

(York Gate Library, 2071-2076)

(Title from the engraved title page.)

﻿

﻿

Companies at Loggerheads

Over the first two decades
of the 17th century there was a bitter struggle between the two new powerful
trading companies, the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) and the East India
Company, the English equivalent, for possession of the lucrative spice trade.
Not only Dutch and English sailors and traders, but also many of the local
people were killed in the ensuing battles.

Intermittent fighting intensified
from 1610, with the VOC establishing the post of Governor-General that year to
take control of its business from the Asian end, rather than trying to control
everything from the Netherlands. Ambon became the VOC’s headquarters in the
East Indies and would remain so throughout the decade. In 1611 a Dutch trading
post was also established at Jayakarta in the Sultanate of Banten in Java. This
would later become Batavia, today’s Jakarta. The English were also present in
some force, establishing several trading posts from 1611 to 1617 throughout the
area.

1619: Coen Takes
Over For The VOC

1619 was a watershed in the
history of the VOC: in this year Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629) was appointed
as the VOC’s Governor-General. Coen, both shrewd and ruthless, saw that the VOC
could become a real political and economic power in Asia. There had been
ongoing trouble in Jayakarta for some time, involving either local forces or
foreign influences, or both. On 30 May 1619 Coen led a successful attack on the
city. He then ordered it burned to the ground and its population expelled. The
Dutch established a closer relationship with the Banten Sultanate and assumed
control of Jayakarta, renaming it Batavia. It became the Dutch East India
Company’s Asian headquarters. Its defences would be strengthened during the
century.

Under Coen the Dutch would commence
a brutal and repressive régime in the East Indies, at his orders driving out,
starving or slaughtering almost the entire population of the Banda Islands, in
a push to establish Dutch plantations growing cloves and nutmegs and thus a
commercial monopoly.

Victims of Greed: The Poor Little Bandas

The Dutch East India
Company and the East India Company fought over the Banda Islands for possession
of the hugely lucrative nutmeg and mace trade throughout the first two decades
of the 17th century. Verhoeff’s expedition had built a fort on Banda Neira and forced
the Bandanese to agree to a treaty granting the Dutch sole trading rights, but it
was almost immediately broken. The Dutch did not pay well, the English were
also pushing for trade and offering higher payments, and in any case the
Bandanese were traditionally a fiercely independent people, unwilling to
knuckle under to any outside force.

Meanwhile the English had
built fortified trading posts on little Run (“Poolaroone,” in the early texts, for
Pulau Run) and on Ai, which were under intermittent Dutch attack.

Courthope and the Fate of Run Island (“Poolaroone”)

On December 25 1616 Captain
Nathaniel Courthope (or “Courthop”, etc.) reached Run in the Bandas to defend
it for the English against the VOC. A contract with the inhabitants was signed,
accepting James I of England as sovereign of the island. Four years of siege by
the Dutch followed. In 1620 after Courthope’s death in a Dutch attack the
English left Run.

Courthope: Early
Texts

1625

In Haklvytvs posthumus (op cit), Vol. I, Part II, Purchas documents
the history of Courthope and little Run in a set of articles listed in the Catalogue of the York Gate Library as:

]Courthop, Nath. Journal of his Voyage
from Bantam to the Hands of Banda, with his residence in Banda and occurrents
there, 1616-20, with the surrender of Poolaroone by the Dutch, page 664 ff.

]Hayes, Rt. Continuation of the former
Journal, [Courthop's] containing the death of Capt. Courthop, surrender of
Lantore, news of the peace, and after the peace Lantore and Poolaroone seized
by the Dutch 1620-21, p. 679

]Letter written to the East India
Companie in England, from their Factors, 1621, p. 684

]The Hollanders Declaration of the
affaires of the East Indies; written in an answere to the fonner Reports,
touching wrongs done to the English in the Islands of Banda, 1622, p, 687

]An Answer to the Hollanders
declaration concerning the occurrents of the East India p. 690

]Relations and Depositions touching the
Hollanders brutish and cruel usage of the English, 1621 p. 693

]... three severall
surrenders of certaine of the Banda Islands, Pooloway, Poolaroone, Rosinging,
and Wayre, to the King of England, 1620

Later in the century, when
the First Anglo-Dutch War was ended by the Treaty of Westminster in 1654, Run
should have been returned to England. Attempts to get the Dutch to return it
failed. In 1665 all the English traders were expelled from the little island.
The VOC exterminated the island’s nutmeg trees as part of their effort to keep
the nutmeg monopoly.

Some
accounts claim that, in a strange twist of fate, in 1667 under the Treaty of
Breda the English traded their rights to Run for Manhattan Island.

A Fateful Year
for the Bandas: 1621

In 1621 Coen enforced a Dutch
monopoly over the Banda Islands’ nutmegs & mace. He landed a force on Banda
Neira & also occupied the neighbouring larger Banda Besar (“Lonthor” or “Lontar”).
The orang kaya (leaders of the
Bandanese) were forced at gunpoint to sign a treaty that was impossible to keep.
Alleged violations of the treaty led to a punitive massacre by the Dutch, as
Coen had intended. At Coen’s orders the Bandanese were well-nigh annihilated.
The native population had been about 13,000 or 14,000. Only around 1,000 were
left.

The VOC Controls the
Nutmeg & Mace Trade

The Dutch brought in slaves,
convicts and indentured labourers to work the nutmeg plantations. Shipments of
surviving Bandanese were sent to Batavia to work as slaves in developing the
city and its fortress. About 500 Bandanese were later returned to the islands
because of their much-needed expertise in nutmeg cultivation.

Coen divided the productive
land of approximately half a million nutmeg trees into sixty-eight 1.2-hectare “perken,” land parcels which were assigned
to Dutch planters (perkeniers). 34
were on Lontar, 31 on Pulau Ai and 3 on Banda Neira. The VOC paid the growers
1/122nd of the Dutch market price for nutmeg—though it still gave them
substantial wealth.

COMPANIES, CONFLICT & CLOVES: The “Amboyna” Massacre, 1623

A treaty between the
English and Dutch companies had been agreed in Europe in 1619, but on the
ground the atmosphere remained hostile. In 1623 on Ambon Island, one of the
clove islands of the Moluccas, agents of the Dutch East India Company tortured
and executed twenty men, ten of them in the service of England’s East India
Company, on charges of treason. This was one of the worst flare-ups in the
rivalry between the English and the Dutch for control of the Spice Islands.

The incident caused a
furore back in Europe, both sides accusing each other, and resulted in a “war
of pamphlets,” a popular way of stating one’s position in the 17th century.
Several of these contemporary documents exist, some of them republished a
century later in the compilation known as The
Harleian Collection, that is:

Osborne,
Thomas, -1767 (publisher)

[Harleian Collection]

A Collection of
voyages and travels,
consisting of authentic writers in our own tongue, which have not before been
collected in English, or have only been abridged in other collections. And
continued with others of note, that have published histories, voyages, travels,
journals or discoveries in other nations and languages, relating to any part of
the continent of Asia, Africa, America, Europe, or the islands thereof, from
the earliest account to the present time. Compiled from the curious and
valuable library of the late Earl of Oxford. London, Printed for and sold by
Thomas Osborne, 1745. 2 vols.

(York Gate Library 2087-2088)

Volume 2 includes (pages
277-352):

]A True Relation of the Unjust, Cruel,
and Barbarous proceedings against the English, at Amboyna, in the East Indies

]A true declaration of the News
concerning a Conspiracy in the Island of Amboyna, and the Punishment following
thereon, in 1624

]An Answer unto the Dutch Pamphlet,
made in defence of the unjust and barbarous proceedings against the English at
Amboyna.

]A Remonstrance of the Directors of the
Netherlands East India Company, in Defence, touching the bloody proceeding
against English Merchants, executed at Amboyna ; with the Acts of the Process,
and the Reply of the English East India Company

Although the “Amboyna”
incident caused outrage in Europe and a diplomatic crisis, in its wake the
English discontinued their attempts to take over the spice trade by gaining
control of the Spice Islands, and, contenting themselves with trading from
Indonesia out of Banten, turned their attention to their other Asian interests,
most notably in India.

What was the fate of the clove trade?
Today’s cloves are grown not only in Indonesia, but also in India, Madagascar,
Zanzibar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The Dutch did their best to
maintain a monopoly over 200-odd years, but as cloves grew on several quite
widely separated islands of the Moluccas it was a difficult task, They
instituted a policy of “extirpation”, burning down those groves that they
couldn't control, which also enabled them to manage supply and keep the price
high. One of the islands which suffered was Ternate, in the northern Maluku.
You can read a most entertaining report from Ternate by Simon Worrall for the BBC News Magazine, “The world's oldest
clove tree,” athttp://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18551857Only a stump and a few dead branches remain of this
tree, which is said to be the very one whose seedlings were stolen by a
Frenchman named Poivre in 1770, transferred to France, and then later to
Zanzibar, successfully breaking the back of the Dutch trade.

Empire of the VOC

So far I've painted a
really black picture of Coen. But he was not just a brutal administrator: he
was also a clear-headed and able businessman. Realising that Europe could offer
Asia little that it needed it wanted by way of payment for spices except silver
and gold, which were scarce in Europe outside Spain and Portugal, he started an
intra-Asia trade system, using the profits to finance the spice trade with
Europe. It required a large capital outlay but in the long run meant there was
no need of further precious metals from Europe. Silver and copper from Japan
were used to trade with India and China for silk, cotton, porcelain, and
textiles. In Coen’s system these products were traded within Asia for the
coveted spices. Examples of Chinese trade porcelain and Indian trade textiles
are still prized possessions in Indonesia today.

By the end of the 17th century the Dutch East India Company was
the richest private company in the world, with over 150 merchant ships, 40
warships, 50,000 employees, a private army of 10,000 soldiers, and an enormous
dividend payment on the original investment. The quest for spices had resulted
in the creation of a mercantile empire.

East Indies: 17th & 18th
Century Travel Narratives

So far I've
only told you about the early works on the first European voyages to the East
Indies. The Royal Geographical Society of South Australia also holds a great
many later works, some of which document the more settled period of the Dutch
occupation of the Indonesian islands, some of which are histories, and some of
which recount voyages made by sea captains and adventurers from other nations.
Here is a selection of works on the East Indies held by the RGSSA which were published
up to the end of the 18th century.

1690-1691

Duquesne, Abraham.

A new voyage to the East-Indies in the
years 1690 and 1691: being a full description of the isles of Maldives,
Cocos, Andamants, and the isle of Ascention, and all the forts and garrisons
now in possession of the French, with an account of the customs, manners, and
habits of the Indians... London. D. Dring, 1696.

A
voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas, from Balambangan: including an
account of Magindano, Sooloo, and other islands; and illustrated with thirty
copperplates: performed in the Tartar Galley, belonging to the honourable East
India Company, during the years 1774, 1775, and 1776... Second edition, with an
index. London, Printed by G. Scott and sold by J. Robson, J. Donaldson, G.
Robinson, and J. Bell, 1780.

The
history of Sumatra: containing an account of the government, laws, customs,
and manners of the native inhabitants, with a description of the naturalproductions, and a relation of the ancient
political state of that island. 2nd ed. London, Printed for the author, and
sold by Thomas Payne and Son..., 1784.

—Another
edition, 1811, with plates.

(York Gate Library 4430)

1781 (printing)

Sonnerat, Pierre, 1748-1814

[Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée. English]

An
account of a voyage to the Spice-Islands, and New Guinea. Bury St.
Edmund’s, Re printed and sold by W. Green, ... [&c.], 1781.

(York Gate Library 2385)

East Indies: Travel Narratives
1801-1850

By the
middle of the 19th century, with improvements in both transportation and
printing, travel books similar to those we know today were becoming quite
common. Those who wrote autobiographical accounts were often no longer
explorers but travellers—though their journeys were frequently long and
arduous. These books were published for a more literate, largely middle-class
reading public in quite large editions, often reprinted many times, and are
still quite widely held in libraries today.

The books
from the earlier 19th century, however, were not published in such large
quantities, and many of them are much harder to find. Here are some of the RGSSA’s
holdings on the East Indies from the first half of the century:

1812 (printing)

Stockdale, John Joseph, 1770-1847.

Sketches,
civil and military, of the island of Java and its immediate dependencies:
comprising interesting details of Batavia, and authentic particulars of the
celebrated poison-tree. 2nd ed. with additions. London, Printed for J.J.
Stockdale, 1812.

(York Gate Library 4433)

1817 (printing)

Raffles, Stamford, Sir, 1781-1826.

The
history of Java. London, Printed for Black, Parbury and Allen, ... and John
Murray, Albemarle Street, 1817. 2 vols.

Voyages
of the Dutch brig of war Dourga: through the southern and little-known
parts of the Moluccan Archipelago, and along the previously unknown southern
coast of New Guinea performed during the years 1825 & 1826. London,
JamesMadden & Co, 1840.

(York Gate Library 2463)

1830 (printing)

Raffles, Sophia, Lady, d. 1859.

Memoir
of the life and public services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F.R.S. &c.:
particularly in the government of Java, 1811-1816, and of Bencoolen and its dependencies, 1817-1824; with details of
the commerce and resources of the Eastern Archipelago, and selections from his
correspondence, by his widow. London, John Murray, 1830.

(York Gate Library 4434)

1832-1834

Bennett, George, 1804-1893.

Wanderings
in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore, and China: being the
journal of a naturalist in those countries, during 1832, 1833, and 1834.
London, Richard Bentley, 1834. 2 vols.

(York Gate Library 4717)

Bennett's
autobiographical work of natural history is “of merit for its good writing and
generally sound observation; his only serious slip was in regard to the nesting
habits of the lyrebird, upon which he was apparently misled by Aboriginals.”
(ADB). The “Pedir Coast” which he visited was in the Sultanate of Aceh, now
Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in Indonesia.

Acheen,
and the ports on the north and east coasts of Sumatra: with incidental
notices of the trade in the eastern seas, and the aggressions of the Dutch.
London, W. H. Allen, 1840.

(York Gate Library 4443)

1844 (printing)

Raffles, Stamford, Sir, 1781-1826.

Antiquarian,
architectural, and landscape illustrations of the history of Java, by the
late Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles; with a large map of Java and its
dependencies. London, Henry G. Bohn, 1844.

1842-1846 (1847 printing)

Jukes, J. Beete (Joseph Beete), 1811-1869.

Narrative
of the surveying voyage of H.M.S. Fly, commanded by Captain F.P. Blackwood,
R.N., in Torres Strait, New Guinea, and other islands of the eastern
archipelago, during the years 1842-1846 : together with an excursion into the
interior of the eastern part of Java.. London, T. & W. Boone, 1847. 2 vols.

(York Gate Library 2177)

1843-1846 (1848 printing)

Belcher, Edward, Sir, 1799-1877.

Narrative
of the voyage of H.M.S. Samarang, during the years 1843-46: employed
surveying the islands of the Eastern archipelago ... with notes on the natural
history of the islands by Arthur Adams. London, Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, 1848.
2 vols.

(York Gate Library 2478)

Edward
Belcher is best known for his Arctic voyages, including a disastrous venture in
which he abandoned his ships. He was a controversial figure, involved in more
than one scandal, and his harsh treatment of his crew made him notorious. But
he was also an energetic and brave man, with considerable scientific curiosity.
His voyage to the East Indies in the Samarang
resulted in the admirable publications listed here.

1843-1846 (1850 printing)

Gray, John Edward, 1800-1875, et al.

Zoology
of the voyage of H.M.S. Samarang under the command of Captain Sir Edward
Belcher, during the years 1843-1846, by John Edward Gray, John Richardson,
Arthur Adams, Lovell Reeve and Adam White. London, Reeve and Benham, 1850.

(York Gate Library 1652)

The
medical officer and naturalist Arthur Adams, R.N. (1820-1878) sailed as
assistant surgeon on H.M.S. Samarang
during its survey of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, subsequently editing
and helping to write up the zoological discoveries. This was an interesting
period for natural history. Naval officers like Adams were still involved in
collecting specimens from around the world, though scholars like John Edward
Gray, credited as the chief author of this work, had already begun to collate
and analyse within the big institutions like the British Museum.

The
volume consists of fifty black and white lithographs, with a title page
vignette, and the Table des planches
preceding the plates. They show contemporary scenes of the Dutch East Indies,
including landscapes, native inhabitants and their way of life, Dutch colonists
and their buildings.

1848 (printing)

James, Rajah of Sarawak, 1803-1868

Narrative
of events in Borneo and Celebes, down to the occupation of Labuan, from the
journals of James Brooke, together with a narrative of the operations ofH.M.S. Iris, by Capt. Rodney Mundy. London,
J. Murray, 1848. 2 vols.

(York Gate Library 4485)

The
Englishman James Brooke (1803-1868) was the first “white rajah” of Sarawak. On
a voyage to Borneo in 1838 in his 142-ton schooner, he arrived in Kuching
during an uprising against the Sultan of Brunei. He and his crew joined forces
with the Sultan to bring about a peaceful settlement. Having threatened the
Sultan with military force, he was granted the title of Rajah of Sarawak, the
official declaration being made in August 1842. Although his rule was not
without controversy, Rajah James had great success as ruler of Sarawak. In
appreciation the British Government warded him a knighthood in 1847, and
appointed him governor and commander-in-chief of Labuan, and British
consul-general in Borneo.

1848 (printing)

Marryat, Frank, 1826-1855.

Borneo
and the Indian Archipelago, with drawings of costume and scenery. London,
Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1848.